Battle of Coronel

The Battle of Coronel was a naval battle fought off the coast of Coronel, Chile on 1 November 1914 during World War I. The Imperial German Navy's East Asia Squadron, commanded by Graf Maximilian von Spee, destroyed a British Royal Navy squadron at Coronel, leading to the British reinforcing their Pacific fleet and destroying the German fleet at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December.

Battle
The Battle of Coronel on 1 November 1914 was a disaster for the Royal Navy. Rear Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock had been ordered to sail from the South Atlantic into the Pacific to search for the German cruisers, although none of his squadron of four ships was a match for the Scharnhorst or Gneisenau. The German cruiser squadron had been augmented by the light cruiser Dresden, until then in the Caribbean. Despite facing superior forces, Cradock felt it was his duty to attack. The Germans sank the armored cruisers Good Hope and Monmouth with relentless accuracy. The crews, who were mostly reservists or young boys, went down with their ships, as did Admiral Cradock. The other two British vessels escaped, although the light cruiser Glasgow was badly damaged.

Aftermath
Desperate for vengeance, the British Admiralty responded by sending the battlecruisers HMS Invincible and Inflexible, commanded by Vice Admiral Frederick Sturdee, to join the hunt for Graf Spee. Gathering up the five gruisers of the South Atlantic Squadron along the way, Sturdee steamed to Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, where he stopped to take on coal. Meanwhile, Spee had rounded Cape Horn into the South Atlantic. He headed for the Falklands, intending to raid its wireless station and coal stocks.